1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drive-in housing halves for mounting a latch assembly in a door.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,472 to Small discloses a drive-in housing consisting of two housing halves for mounting a latch assembly in a door and a method of installing same. As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the drive-in housing includes two housing halves 10 for simplifying the procedure of mounting a latch assembly 20 in a door. Each housing half 10 has a flange section 101, a mid-section having a plurality of ribs 102 on an outer periphery thereof, and an end section (not labeled). Each housing half 10 further has a slot 103 for receiving and capturing an associated one of two tabs 211 of the latch assembly 20. Further, each housing half 10 has a projection 105 on one of two abutment faces 104 thereof and a groove 106 in the other abutment face 104 thereof, allowing mutual engagement of the housing halves 10. The latch assembly 20 has a cylindrical casing 21, a bolt 22, and a bolt operating mechanism 23. After the drive-in housing halves 10 are assembled on the latch assembly 20, the entire assembly is roughly aligned with the bore of the door and inserted into the door until the ribs 102 come into contact with the wood bounding the periphery of the bore. Next, a driving force is applied to the flange sections 101 of the housing halves 10 in a direction parallel to the axis of the latch assembly 20 until outer faces of the flange sections 101 are flush with an edge surface of the door. The ribs 102 bite into the wood of the door bounding the bore to thus prevent rotation of the housing halves 10 relative to the door.
However, although the ribs 102 allows the latch assembly 20 to be mounted into the bore of the door without using screws, formation of the projection 105 and the groove 106 in the respective abutment faces 104 of each casing half 10 is difficult if the casing half 10 is too thin, and it is impossible to provide tight engagement between the projection 105 and the groove 106; namely, it is not easy to insert the projection 105 into the groove 106 or the projection 105 is apt to break. Further, each housing half 10 and the casing 21 are only engaged through the slot 103 and the tab 211 such that the housing half 10 might fall during installation.